1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of sports equipment and in particular to grips for golf clubs or putters with improved tactile and acoustic feedback to the hands of the player.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well appreciated both by professional and amateur golfers that one of the most difficult aspects of the sport of golf is not the play of the ball from the tee or off the green, but putting. The difference of a winning or losing performance among even modestly talented golfers often ends up in the play on the green rather than elsewhere in the game.
The rules of the United States Golf Association, the governing body for the sport, do not permit adaptations to golf equipment which allow sophisticated feedback devices such as lasers, electronics, internal gyros and the like which could be exploited to ease or improve the use of a club. Thus, a player must sense or obtain feedback from his manipulation of the golf club largely through his natural senses of sight, hearing and feel without the aid of electronics.
In virtually all golf play situations, and in particular in putting, feedback received by the player is tactile and is transmitted through the club head, shaft and grip to the player's hands. Many modifications have been made to club designs relating to weight distribution within the club or through shaft flexibility. Examples of these can be seen in Lowell, "Golf Putter", U.S. Pat. No. 1,569,765 (1926); Atkinson, "Golf Swing Training Device", U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,325 (1969); Steiner, "Variable Golf Club", U.S. Pat. No. 3,070,370 (1962); Guzzle et al., "Golf Club", U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,144 (1980); Winters, "Golf Club Shaft", U.S. Pat. No. 1,994,556 (1935); and Mazzocco et al., "Golf Club having Adjustable Length Shaft", U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,746 (1987).
In addition to modifications in shaft design or club mass distribution, numerous modifications have been made to the golf club grip to either increase comfort, increase reliability of grip or to attempt to vary the feel or tactile feedback through the golf club by means of a specially designed grip. For example, see Serblin, "Golf Club Handle", U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,689 (1965); Takashima, "Golf Club Grip", U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,440 (1978); Duncan, Jr., "Golf Club Grip", U.S. Pat. No. 2,459,996 (1949); Armstrong, "Grip for Playing Clubs", U.S. Pat. No. 1,488,900 (1924); Jordy, "Golf Grip", U.S. Pat. No. 1,604,696 (1926); Taylor, "Golf Club Grip and Marker", U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,559 (1973); Lamkin et al., "Golf Club Grip for Shafts with Diametral Variations", U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,264 (1967), and Kunihisa, "Golf Club Having a Handle with Vibration Sensing Means", U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,602 (1967).
The last patent to Kunihisa reflects the conventional wisdom that one means of increasing the tactile feedback to a golf club in its impact with the golf ball is by providing a means of transmitting the vibration of impact through the club to the golfer's hands. Kunihisa utilizes a number of embodiments incorporating an interior vibration transmitting rod which has a tactile pad or element extending to the side of the club grip in contact with the golfer's hands or fingers. Vibrations are transmitted through a rod connected to the golf club head through the shaft to the contact pad in place against the golfer's hands or fingers. The theory is that this allows the golfer to feel the impact of the club with the ball with greater fidelity and amplitude and thus allows the golfer to make adjustments to optimize the stroke for impact force.
However, each or the prior art methods and devices either suffers from complexity which leads to its questionable acceptability to the rule-making organization for this sport or is simply ineffective to provide the player with an accurate sense of the impact with the golf ball.
The positioning of grips with respect to vibration nodes on a shaft in a sports racket is shown in Muroi, "Racket Frame Having a Particularly Positioned Grip", U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,949. In Muroi, the connection between the grip and the shaft is a node of the vibration with the remainder of the grip filled with a vibration damping foam. The purpose is to reduce the vibrations transmitted from the shaft into the grip, particularly those of higher harmonic frequencies. While this is believed to be effective in providing a more single tone or frequency of vibration which is sensed in the player's hand, the construction actually substantially attenuates the degree of vibrations which can be sensed even of the fundamental frequency.
Furthermore, even such attenuated vibrational frequency which is transmitted is totally transmitted to the player through the grip as tactile sensation with no other pathway or mechanism for sensible feedback.
Therefore, what is needed is a design unencumbered with complexity which may render it suspicious or unacceptable to rule-making bodies, but which is nonetheless effective to provide an accurate sensation of the nature of the impact of the club with the ball.